Bilzerian is controversial. His feed is full of conspicuous displays of consumption, bikini models, guns and a cat called Smushball.

Some love him, some hate him. And I’m not going to get into the morals of his content here. Regardless of your opinion, he’s managed to parlay his approach into a social media empire, cameos in Hollywood films and a virtual lifestyle the envy of 20-something males the world over.

So what can brands possibly learn about social content from this guy? Here’s the top 10:

He understands what his audience wants and he gives it to them. He’s living the dream (well, someone’s dream) and taking his audience along for the ride.

He’s prolific, posting often. Fans can expect regular updates.

He plays to the strengths of the channel. Instagram has rules about nudity which he pushes to the limit, plus he uses video, slo-mo and tagging to great effect.

He invests in the content, often using dedicated camera crews, drones and other means to capture moments in interesting ways.

He has a distinct tone of voice. Plenty of humour and a definite attitude.

It’s personal. There’s no filter here. No doubt there’s curation and some careful stage management, but no filter.

The content is shareable. Again, he knows what his audience wants, and they pass it on in spades.

He mixes it up. It’s not all guns and bikinis (though mostly). He posts about supporting veterans, his cat – there’s just enough humanity in there to take the edge off the debauchery. Otherwise it would get old pretty quickly.

He syndicates. The people tagged in his posts begin to develop communities of their own off the back of its popularity. This begins to create an infinite loop, with him at the centre.

It all works to build the brand. Everything is done to cultivate a mystique about this ridiculous lifestyle. Nothing goes up that detracts from this.

Sure, he’s an odd case study for social media, and I’m definitely not saying your brand should go out and copy his content. But it’s important to note that the approach, the principles, are universal, and fundamental to creating successful social media content, no matter what your business.

Because a focus on consumer intent needs to trump a focus on pure conversion.

Because instead of trying to manipulate consumers down a prescribed path or funnel, marketers should be using a framework that either solves business problems or focuses on user behaviour.

In other words, it’s time to start looking at digital marketing from the human-centred point of view we’ve seen in UX, digital design and other disciplines.

Image credit: The Marketoonist

I don’t actually believe marketers have an either/or choice regarding business problem vs user behaviour. You need to consider both. If your marketing framework focuses purely on a business problem, and doesn’t consider user need, chances are it won’t meet their expectations. If you focus solely on their behaviour, without considering the business problem you’re addressing, how do you account for ROI?

That’s why the key planks of a digital strategy are business goals and audience need. Finding the ‘sweet spot’ between the two is what shapes your approach.

By way of example, Avinash talks about designing a website that allows for all user intents i.e. it doesn’t try to only convert a small number of prospects, but also provides value for those who visit but aren’t ready to make a purchasing decision.

Now, creating a website that caters to all user groups might seem pretty obvious to those who design digital experiences for a living. But the point is that many marketers are so focused on engagement or conversion, they lose sight of the huge group of consumers who may passively experience your marketing and want light-touch value. This applies not just in the narrow confines of a web experience, but more broadly across the digital mix, as Jerry Daykin outlines here.

In my view, Avinash is really talking about the digital experience. I wrote in an earlier post that a great digital experience is driven by customer needs (a digital experience is also a lot more than just a website).

Marketers must deliver a digital experience that both meets consumer needs and addresses business objectives, at whichever contact point the consumer chooses to use, not at the contact point marketers wish they would use.

The sooner digital marketing begins to understand the importance of the experience, and the motivations of users within that experience, the more effective it will be.

The Venn diagram of digital marketing and human experience is rapidly being drawn. It can only mean good things for marketers and audiences alike.